MetLife made a startling announcement this week that they are leaving the individual disability insurance marketplace.
Per MetLife:
“As we continue to pursue our goal of creating a new, stand-alone U.S. Retail organization, we are evaluating our business model and making difficult, but strategic decisions. As part of that evaluation process, we have decided to suspend Individual Disability Insurance (IDI) sales, effective September 1, 2016. This date will be the final date to submit business, with the final date to place business on October 31, 2016. This suspension affects the fully underwritten IDI line under U.S. Retail Distribution.
The Group, Voluntary & Worksite Benefits business will continue to manufacture and sell Group Disability Insurance/Guaranteed Standard Issue business as they do today.
This was not an easy decision to make, given the growth and strength of our IDI business. However, we believe it is the best course of action for the immediate future. While there is tremendous opportunity in this market, the suspension provides us with the time and resources needed to properly separate the U.S. Retail business from MetLife. There is a significant amount of work to be done to retool existing systems – and implement new systems – that will ultimately provide the most value to our customers and sales partners in the years to come.”
